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In this episode of The Startup CPG Podcast, Caitlin Bricker welcomes Elan Halpern and Kiki Couchman, co-founders of Sourmilk, a Greek yogurt brand designed to revolutionize consumer gut health. Elan and Kiki share their journey from Stanford classmates to entrepreneurs transforming the yogurt industry by combining the science of targeted probiotics with a delicious, everyday food. They discuss how Sourmilk stands out from traditional yogurts by incorporating clinically backed probiotic strains that support digestion, hormone balance, and overall wellness—without compromising on taste or quality.
The conversation explores their unconventional “drug deal” pickup model in New York City, where they personally deliver refrigerated yogurt in brown paper bags to early customers, fostering a sense of community and direct connection to their brand. Elan and Kiki also recount their bold rebranding story—from receiving a cease-and-desist letter to landing on the provocative yet memorable name “Sourmilk,” a decision that has helped them stand out in a crowded CPG landscape. Their commitment to transparency, creativity, and consumer engagement shines through as they discuss building in public, learning from customer feedback, and preparing for their first retail launch.
As they look ahead, Elan and Kiki outline a strategic and measured approach to scaling Sourmilk—beginning with select grocery stores in New York City and expanding across the Northeast with an emphasis on quality, freshness, and brand authenticity.
Tune in to hear how Sourmilk is redefining what it means to be a modern CPG brand—rooted in science, community, and creativity.
Listen in as they share about:
- The Concept Behind Sourmilk
- Founders’ Backgrounds and Inspiration
- Building a Food Brand vs. a Supplement
- Product Development and Iteration
- The “Drug Deal” Pickup Model
- The Rebrand Story
- Building in Public and Community Engagement
- Growth Strategy and Future Plans
Instagram: @getsourmilk
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
Show Links:
- Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
- Join the Startup CPG Slack community (20K+ members and growing!)
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- Visit host Caitlin's Linkedin
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
- Episode music by Super Fantastics
Creators and Guests
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Elan
Fast forward to last year. Kiki and I are starting to think about what we want to do next, and we realized that this is actually potentially a pretty massive opportunity. You know, 2/3 of Americans have gut health and digestive issues, and the vast majority of them are probably not going to or unwilling to take a pill or powder or supplement to actually heal those issues. But 92% of American households consume yogurt. So what if we took this thing that people are already eating every single day and didn't ask them to change their habit or didn't ask them to make a modification in their diet, but just kind of swapped it for something that was equally as good, if not better, and had a tremendous impact on your gut health?
00:48
Caitlin Bricker
Hey, everybody, this is Caitlin Brooker, editor at Startup cpg. We are back with another founder feature. Today we're talking with Ilan Halpern and Kiki Kouchman, founders of Sour Milk, a Greek yogurt cultured with targeted probiotics instead of traditional yogurt bacteria. After Elan spent years tinkering with homemade yogurt to heal her own gut health issues, she and her Stanford roommate turned best friend Kiki quit their jobs in tech and private equity to build a brand that's been reshaping how New Yorkers buy yogurt. From hand delivering over 5,000 yogurts in brown paper bags to pivoting their entire brand name in just 14 days after receiving a cease and desist, they're building a loyal community before even hitting retail shelves. My gut is so ready for Sour Milk to expand beyond New York. Enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast.
01:44
Caitlin Bricker
This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Alon Halpern and Kiki Couchman, founders of Sour Milk. Ladies, welcome to the show.
01:50
Elan
Thanks for having us, Caitlin. Hi.
01:52
Caitlin Bricker
How are you guys doing? I feel like there's always something going on in the Sour Milk world. Right now, like, you are at the Google offices, taking a call with me, I'm like, oh, this is too cool. You're too cool.
02:07
Kiki
For me, there's like a new flavor of the day.
02:10
Elan
Yeah. For us, it's always different. Yeah.
02:12
Kiki
Today the flavor is. We were invited to be part of a VC residency, and it's the kickoff day of the residency, and it's here at Google's office. So we're sort of taking some time away from the cohort and recording this podcast with you.
02:23
Caitlin Bricker
Well, I so appreciate you taking the time out of your very busy days. I am psyched to get into the world of sour milk. So for anybody who is out there and is not familiar with sour milk, the brand, I'm sure there are many people who are familiar with sour milk just in general. Kiki, can you tell us very succinctly what sour milk is? Yes.
02:45
Kiki
Sour milk is a Greek yogurt that's specifically designed for your gut. So we're taking the probiotics that you would find in a supplement, like a pill or a powder form, and actually culturing it in your yogurt so you can eat the thing you love every day, plus 15 grams of protein, 0 grams of added sugar, grass fed organic dairy, and also heal your gut.
03:03
Caitlin Bricker
That all sounds so good to me, I have to say. First time I met the two of you was at fancy food out in New York. And Patty, our head of marketing, was like, Caitlin, you gotta try it. Because she had seen my videos I'd been posting online. I'm like, why are there hundreds of containers of yogurt on the shelf and I cannot find a single organic vanilla, no sugar added Greek yogurt nowhere. Nobody's doing it. So I'm hoping that'll be something that I can get my hands one day. So my big question for you is what makes sour milk different than all these other yogurts that are on the shelf?
03:45
Kiki
Yeah, just speaking to, you know exactly what sour milk is. There are so many yogurts on the shelf that are made with bacteria. That's how you make turn milk into yogurt. And those bacteria are really good at making delicious yogurt. And so what's different about sour milk is we actually wanted to create a yogurt that can help support your gut and your health in addition to tasting delicious. So we're actually taking the most targeted probiotics and culturing it in your yogurt. So it's almost like a supplement every single morning. Plus it tastes delicious and it can be your daily yogurt as well.
04:17
Caitlin Bricker
That's interesting about the supplement aspect. I feel like we hear a lot about gut health and probiotics so much that sometimes it can be so overwhelming. I am interested in maybe alon you could possibly speak to this. What makes yogurt different from a supplement? Why do you not have to have supplement facts on your yogurt versus a supplement that you'd snag off of a shelf?
04:40
Elan
Yeah, it's a great question. So ultimately we are building a food product. We're building a yogurt that you're going to buy in the grocery store and it's going to sit in your fridge and you're going to eat it every single day. We're not building, like, a pillar or powder that you buy online or maybe buy at a vitamin shop or whatever that might look like. But it's really comes down to, like, the way we've designed the product. So like Kiki said, There are around 10,000 different bacteria strains, and similar to how vitamins function, they all play different roles. So to be specific, some people know that you take vitamin D in the morning, you take magnesium at night, you take vitamin C when you're feeling sick, or zinc.
05:19
Elan
All of those vitamins are, like, generally household names that people are familiar with, and they know that they play different roles in your health. Bacteria strains have the same thing. So there are a bunch of different bacteria strains. They all play different roles in your health. Some help you produce oxytocin, some actually help stimulate GLP1 production naturally in your. In your microbiome. And so the algae rules. Just no one knows the names. Like, you're not going to hear Streptococcus thermophilus being thrown around in a household, right?
05:46
Caitlin Bricker
Definitely not out of my mouth.
05:48
Elan
Exactly. Yeah. And so part of what we're trying to do here is take these bacteria that actually play really specific roles in your health and then put them into the food that you're eating every single day already. And so I think the big difference on that front is that we really just want this to be a yogurt that you wake up and want to eat every single day.
06:09
Kiki
And.
06:09
Elan
And underneath it just so happens to be your probiotic supplement as well.
06:13
Kiki
So we're working with normal nutrition panel facts. You know, when you flip over the label, those types of things. And so it's like the same thing that we're subject to all the food type regulation rather than the supplement type.
06:25
Caitlin Bricker
Regulation, all the exciting stuff. Right. I am just fascinated by how much, you know, it feels like I'm talking to scientists. So before we get more into sour milk, I need to know about the two of you and your background. So maybe, Kiki, you want to go first and tell me a little bit about your background? For sure.
06:44
Kiki
Well, I'll just start by saying we met in undergrad together. We are best friends. We've lived together. We've studied abroad together. We now spend literally like 90% of our waking hours together. So we're starting to merge. We're starting to have hive mind. But I will start off. I grew up in California, so I am originally from Northern California. And actually my dad grew up on a dairy farm, so dairy is not far away in my roots. And went on to Stanford, studied human biology. So not necessarily a scientist by trade, but have a deep passion for, you know, health and everything we put in our body and what it does to us. I graduated into the pandemic we Both did in 2020, and I ended up working at a private equity firm.
07:27
Kiki
It was something that I knew I could learn a lot of things from. And I saw the people around me and really admired their intellect and their rigorous. And I ended up staying there for four and a half years until this January when I quit to build Sour milk with Elan. And sort of through that process, when I was still working in private equity, I actually moved to New York as a change of pace. Just a different place to be than the Bay Area. But actually it's been so pivotal in actually starting Sour milk and being able to spread the word is being here in New York City.
07:55
Caitlin Bricker
I do feel like New York is the epicenter of cpg. Like, I'm in the Boston area. There are certainly CPG brands around here, but it's minuscule compared to what you get when you're in New York. So definitely a change of pace.
08:09
Elan
We talk about this all the time. But building in New York has been a huge advantage for us because, as you know, we're sort of everywhere all at once. And we literally can do that because we're in New York City. We couldn't do that in another city or any other state. So we can be on the Upper east side doing a pickup and then 30 minutes later be in Williamsburg doing a pickup. And so you cover, like, all of New York in the same day in a way that you really couldn't do in any other city.
08:33
Caitlin Bricker
So cool. I need touch base with you again on that pickup language. But first, Alon, tell me a little bit about your background.
08:41
Elan
Yeah, so like you said, we met at. At Stanford undergrad. I actually studied computer science there, and after graduating, went on to be a product manager at a B2B SaaS company for four and a half years, which was very fun. I joined. We were 10 people left when were 250 people, and it was an absolute blast. But simultaneously, I've always had a really deep ingrained passion in health and wellness in general. And a couple of years ago, I was facing a whole host of gut health issues myself. This manifested as, like, things that you would predict. So, like, bloating after I was eating or, like, brain fog. In the morning, even if I didn't drink the night before, I had a bunch of, like, hormone imbalances as well, which I learned was all tied to your gut and your microbiome.
09:22
Elan
And when I went to go investigate, like, how to actually heal my gut, one of the things I learned was that the best way to do that is by consuming probiotics. And so in my head, I was like, great. I eat yogurt every single day, and I thought yogurt was probiotic and really good for my health. But when I dug into the science of all the yogurt I could find in the shelf, I learned that none of it is actually making an impact on your microbiome or your gut health. And so what I decided to do was rather than, you know, eat my yogurt and then order hundreds of dollars of supplements and do that to heal my gut, sort of take those two things and combine them.
09:53
Elan
And so I designed a yogurt from the ground up that was first and foremost a probiotic supplement. So it had the right bacteria in the right quantities, and then kind of figured out how to make it taste good and was consuming that for myself, really, like, just trying to heal my own gut for about three years. This is while Keke and I were living together, so she was, like, subject to all of these experiments as well. And fast forward to last year. Kiki and I are starting to think about what we want to do next, and we realized that this is actually potentially a pretty massive opportunity.
10:21
Elan
You know, 2/3 of Americans have gut health and digestive issues, and the vast majority of them are probably not going to or unwilling to take a pill or a powder or supplement to actually heal those issues. But 92% of American households consume yogurt. So what if we took this thing that people are already eating every single day and didn't ask them to change their habit or didn't ask them to make a modification in their diet, but just kind of swapped it for something that was equally as good, if not better, and had a tremendous impact on your gut health. That's really like, how sour milk started and what the sort of overall mission is.
10:56
Caitlin Bricker
I am super curious how long it took you to start feeling or seeing a difference within yourself once you started making this yogurt at home.
11:05
Elan
Yeah, that's a great question. So when I was making the early versions for myself, the quantities of bacteria and probatics I was using was, like, super high. Really potent, really potent. And happy to talk about that and how we iterated on that recipe. But because of that, I was feeling the effects pretty immediately. I think it was two weeks of eating it consistently was when I started to consistently feel better, which was really fascinating. And kind of like, stuck with it religiously ever since. But we iterated on that version of the product, I think for a couple of reasons. One, because I wasn't optimizing for the thing to taste good. Like, I was just. It was my, like, medicine. Like, I wanted to eat yogurt every day, but it wasn't like, this has to be amazing. It just has to do the trick.
11:48
Elan
And as we build a product for mass market consumers, it has to taste good. It has to be a yogurt that people love and crave and want to eat. So that was something that we had to change and adjust. And then number two was, like, the dosing. So if you have gut health issues, and, you know that's a sliding scale, some people have a semi messed up gut, some people have really messed up gut, some people have no problems at all. If you flood your gut with a lot of, like, good probiotics, it will also start to flush out some of the bad stuff, and that can have some, like, unwanted side effects, if you know what I mean. I'm sure you've heard.
12:23
Caitlin Bricker
No, please tell us you want to hear all that.
12:26
Elan
Yeah. So because of that, in our early recipe iterations, we realized that a lot of people might consume this product and then, like, have to run to the bathroom and be like, something's wrong. When in reality, that's actually a really positive thing because the good bacteria are kind of helping flush out some of the bad stuff. And so we decided to, like, go into a range that was slightly lower that actually enabled people to still have the effects, but not, like, in such an instant timeframe. And so that was a lot of the iteration that we made on the. On the product. And shout out to my girlfriend Frankie, who was patient zero on all of those early test batches and was very patient with those. She was, Yeah.
13:03
Caitlin Bricker
I think this is so funny because I am sure there's probably something wrong with my gut. I used to drink, like, Olipop because I liked the flavor. And I remember I'd be like, okay, I'm drinking this because I like the flavor, but now I need to go, like, off gas for eight hours away from anybody and, like, not be in public. So I'm like, I don't know what's fighting each other right now, but if I could, like, get my gut right with yogurt, which Is also something I eat every morning, too. We'd be good. How did you choose the right strains? Did you have to do some research on the right strains to pick? And was this something that you were targeting for yourself? Alon. Pardon my French, but people say karma is a bitch. Brain fog.
13:48
Caitlin Bricker
Is that, like, it is the worst thing in the world, like, especially after becoming a mom. I don't recall ever having brain fog before in my life, but now I will have it for, like, weeks at a time. And I'm almost two years postpartum. So if you can heal my brain fog with some sour milk, like, we're back in business.
14:07
Elan
Yeah, I mean, you should try it for sure. The way I went about choosing the bacteria was, number one, it has to be probiotic, which literally, like the definition of probiotic means a bacteria that benefits the host, right? So, like, when consumed, it actually has tangible benefits for the host. And that in itself rules out a lot of bacteria that, like, aren't really beneficial. Number two, it had to be able to survive in a food. So there's a lot of other bacteria, like Akkermansia is another bacteria that actually doesn't survive very well in, like, food products. And it can have positive benefits, but that also filters down, especially in a high pH environment, like yogurt. It's pretty acidic, so it has to survive in that area. And then number three was like, bacteria that are, like, quote, unquote, universally good, so to speak.
14:53
Elan
And so we selected these bacteria that we know the vast, vast majority, especially people in America, do not have enough of. It is incredibly difficult to have a really good gut in America. And so we handpicked these bacteria that we know are going to beneficial for that. And even if you have enough of it and you added more, it still would beneficial. So that's kind of how went through that selection process. And then obviously, there's a huge taste factor. Like I said before, like, some bacteria we trialed with, we just, like, really didn't like the output of the yogurt that it produced. And so we ruled those out because taste was really important factor for us.
15:28
Caitlin Bricker
Yes, taste is number one. I mean, your branding could be on point, your packaging can be on point, your messaging can be on point. But if the product doesn't taste good or it's not effective, at the end of the day, then all of those things mean nothing. So I'm glad that you were tinkering and you're able to find this happy medium. I am very curious. I heard you Talking about doing pickups. What is this secret language that you're using with regard to yogurt?
15:59
Kiki
Well, we run a drug deal model here in New York City, but instead of drugs, it's sour milk yogurt. There's a few constraints on our product and so I think that's sort of the number one defining thing about why we run this type of model first is we want to try and get this product, I think above all into people's hands as quick as possible. Most companies start by doing the D2C approach where, you know, they have an online wait list and they blast it with their website and now they can ship nationwide and their early adopters can try it whether they're in California, New York, Texas, Chicago, wherever it is in the US we can't do that because we are refrigerated.
16:35
Kiki
So that's number one is there's no way for us to get our product to people unless it's literally hand to hand or it's in a retail store. So that's number one. Number two is okay, great, let's go to retail store. Actually we have an eight week shelf life just like other yogurt. And if a new brand pops into a retail store, a, it's hard to get into a retail store, but who's going to pick it up off the shelf? You know, that might happen, but we wanted to really bolster our data and ensure we had a group of loyal customers and a virtual line out the door before were ever on any retail shop. So we can make sure we don't hit that expiration date and we can sell through our product as much as possible.
17:13
Kiki
And so that really resulted in how do we get this sour milk into everybody's hands of New York City as quick as possible and acquire as many customers along the way and create some noise and buzz while we do it right. And so that's what we've been doing is sort of starting in June, we did our first production run at our Coneman and we brought back, you know, 1200 yogurts and we blasted our email list of over a thousand people who are all zip coded here in New York. We've been building in public on social media for the past eight months. And so we've been able to really gain traction in that way.
17:45
Kiki
And we sold out of 1200 yogurts in two weeks by literally having people order online, choose a pickup location and we met them there with a brown paper bag of sour milk yogurt inside.
17:55
Caitlin Bricker
The brown paper bag is literally Just the icing on the cake for me.
17:59
Kiki
You know, it was one of those things where you're like, how do we even give them this yogurt? You know, were talking about them the early iteration. We're like, let's just do a lunch bag.
18:06
Elan
Yeah, like, it's like your little lunch bag.
18:08
Kiki
It's just the easiest way.
18:09
Elan
And so we write people's names on it too.
18:12
Caitlin Bricker
Like, please, I love it.
18:14
Kiki
We call this, like the starter crew. Like, these are our, you know, there's like a double meaning there of like yogurt starter, bacteria culture. But also these are our starter early adopters and our loyal customers. And so over the past two months, we've been able to sell over 5,000 yogurts doing this hand to hand delivery and really prove out for ourselves, like, hey, there's some real traction here. We're both seeing customer retention and growth. Now people aren't just coming because they found us through social media. They're coming because their friend loves our yogurt and told them to try it, or they saw us on this other person's random account and now they're coming. And so it sort of gives us the confidence, but also the momentum to really move into retail when we're ready.
18:50
Caitlin Bricker
Unbelievable. Honestly, like, I am so impressed by that model and I feel like if retailers are not already jumping at the opportunity to work with you, I think exactly what you've done now is going out, finding that data, getting that buy in from customers. That is a testament in itself. So I know there's going to be retailers listening to this. So take notes, everybody.
19:13
Kiki
The other factor that I didn't say is the fact that, you know, we are the founders, but we're also the delivery men and we're also, you know, the faces on social media and we're also the distributor. Right? So, like, it's one of those things where it's kind of underrated. Someone asked me like, oh, so you're, you know, hiring some hourly people to do these drops?
19:29
Caitlin Bricker
I'm like, no, no.
19:30
Kiki
We are the hourly people. We are the ones who are on the street corner and who are meeting every single, you know, discreet customer that comes our way. So, you know, we can tell the story and we can have those interactions and be super close to why people love our yogurt.
19:44
Elan
And for what it's worth, like, I think we always say this, but there's a world of a difference. Walking into the grocery store and seeing a product on the shelf and being like, I met the founders of that product. I've been eating that yogurt all summer. I, like, met them on a street corner and, like, kind of have that story with them versus you walk in the grocery store and you see a product for the first time on the shelf, and, like, maybe you're curious about what it is, but you'll probably just keep walking past it. And so that's sort of like the thing that we're trying to create before we launch into retail stores is this, like, community base of thousands of people in New York who have been eating our yogurt all summer.
20:18
Kiki
It's like the classic, you need to see something 10 times online or something before you can buy it. Right. With brand marketing, we're taking that to a new level of, like, you have to have seen it online 10 times, seen us in person 10 times at your gym and your run club and your local street corner. And you need to have tasted us 10 times before you'll buy us. So we're covering our bases.
20:39
Caitlin Bricker
The model is so cool. It's so cool. I don't think anybody else can really have so much fun with their branding. And like, you guys have had a smile on your face this entire time. I'm sure it's a lot of hard work, but just like you're saying along, like, that connection that you're able to make with the customer, and then if they do see it on the retail shelf, like, be like, hell, yeah. I want to pick this up. I got this for. How much are you charging per gram or per ounce? I got this for X dollars in a brown paper bag two weeks ago. It's really funny to me, really cool. And I will say I do want touch on your branding because I do remember seeing a little bit before about your product prior brand name.
21:21
Caitlin Bricker
I don't know if we're allowed to speak about it. I don't know any legalities around that. But you really came on my radar when you came out with the rebrand for Sour Milk. Because I was like, oh, my God. Like, it sounds disgusting, but it looks so good. Like, it stuck into my mind. It was just like, such a ballsy approach, and it's memorable. And your branding is so simple, but so beautiful. You're even wearing your blue color right now a lot. It's like, probably just like ingrained into your DNA. So good. Talk to me about that. What did that process look like? How did you land on the name? Tell me anything that you are allowed to tell me.
22:03
Kiki
Yeah, so we got a cease and desist. And we decided to change our name within two weeks. You know, at first it felt like the floor was dropping out from under us. You know, we'd been building in public for six months with that previous name. And then we got a cease and desist. And it was like, oh, my goodness, we already know, you know, so many people already know us as, you know, our prior name.
22:20
Elan
And also, sorry, one thing I'll add is this was like two days before were about to put in an order of packaging for like, 100,000 units. So it was like we had to make a decision. Yes.
22:30
Kiki
And ultimately it was absolutely the right decision for so many reasons. I think first and foremost being brand equity. It dilutes a brand to have, you know, the same name no matter what, even if they're across categories.
22:41
Elan
So.
22:41
Kiki
So in classic fashion of building in public, we decided, okay, let's take to our followers, let's take to our community, and let's make this a challenge for us and for them. Because every single day, we don't have a new name. Every day we are nameless, we lose out on brand equity. Right? We're not building who we are. And so we put a end cap of 14 days. And, you know, I opened up my phone, got online and said, hey, this is happening. This is why we have 14 days to change our name. Now, that wasn't sort of a mandatory legal thing. It was just like I said, we wanted to do this as quick as possible. And so those 14 days were like a firestorm.
23:18
Kiki
We got so much input from everybody, and I think that was incredibly helpful for us to start thinking about things. But we couldn't walk down the street of New York, and New York is probably the worst place to do this without thinking, why is that pizza shop called that pizza shop?
23:31
Caitlin Bricker
Why is Google called Google?
23:32
Kiki
Oh, my goodness. Why is LinkedIn called LinkedIn? We just opened up the app LinkedIn, you know, like, where do these names come from? And so were completely sort of filled and absorbed in that. Where we ultimately landed was, okay, we've now had six months of creating identity, and we've understood what grabs people's attention in the attention economy. How do we actually go a completely different direction and address that and be able to pull people out of the aisle to pick up our package and actually, you know, engage with our brand both online, but actually in the real world too, because we're competing with commodities like, you know, Chobani Faye siggies. These are all really big household name brands where people are habitually used to buying the same thing. We need to snap somebody out of it.
24:16
Kiki
And so that's really how we got Sour milk was sort of the one remembering. So how do we make sure, like you said, memorability. There is a gut punch, literally, no pun intended, to sour milk. And that emotional reaction that you have creates that memorability. So that's number one. Number two is there's some meaning behind it, too, right? Like, we wanted people to be reminded that their yogurt is fermented and alive, and sour milk does just that. And then number three is it's easy. Like, we don't need another name out here in the yogurt aisle where people don't quite know how to pronounce it. We don't need to say phage. We don't need to.
24:49
Caitlin Bricker
That is a great point.
24:51
Kiki
And so there was something there, too, where we really wanted to be able to be an easy, memorable.
24:58
Caitlin Bricker
Wow. Again, just so cool. So cool. It seems like it came so easy to you, even though I'm sure it was a lot of work. But again, like, I had seen you building your brand in public previously, but then when the name change happened, it was just like, I hate to say this because it's so overused, but it was like a magic wand was waved and it just, like, seriously, like, blew life into your product. At least from my perspective now. I see you everywhere. Every time I open my phone to go on Instagram, you're there. Every time I go on LinkedIn, it's either a post from Milan that I'm seeing or it's one of you commenting on somebody else's post. And I follow a lot of people. It's not like I'm over here stalking you too, but you're everywhere.
25:40
Caitlin Bricker
And that is such a good thing. I think building in public says a lot about who you are as people, a lot about who you are as brand builders, and that you're not afraid to fail and that you're also totally cool with getting feedback and then integrating it or not integrating it into your brand. But at least you're open to hearing it and seeing it. I think it's very admirable.
25:59
Kiki
Thank you. I actually think it's like a first principle of building any consumer brand. You are directly there to serve your customers, and every company is that. But as a consumer, as a CPG brand, like, we are eaten every single day, and we want to hear from our customers and be able to have that direct channel of communication with our customers as well.
26:19
Caitlin Bricker
Well, it's fantastic. I would love to switch gears just slightly in our last few minutes here and ask you what your plans are for the future for Sour Milk. We touched on your drug deal model. We touched on retail potential. So talk to me about what you feel like is coming in the future, and if there's anything that you want to blast out there on the airwaves, to anybody who might be listening, just give it to us.
26:42
Elan
Yeah, so we'll actually be launching with our first grocery store in the next month or so. It'll be here in New York City. We'll start very, like, focused on a couple of grocery stores and then kind of continue to roll out from there. But if you're in New York City, look out for our first grocery store launch.
26:59
Kiki
Yeah, we're super excited to be actually be able to be in some doors because right now, like we said, the only way you can get it is the most high friction experience. So we're having those early conversations, you know, with retailers beyond. But we've sort of chosen our initial ones and come Q1 of early 2026, we hope to be, you know, ubiquitous throughout New York City. So you can sort of go into any of your favorite grocery stores and be able to get Sour Milk.
27:22
Caitlin Bricker
I have a feeling you will be. And do you have plans to expand outside of New York or are you just keeping it in New York for now?
27:29
Kiki
I like to say maybe this is a boring thing to say on like this type of podcast, but it's like a measured growth approach. This upcoming quarter is like we've spent the past quarter acquiring those customers. This next quarter is how do we funnel those customers into a few grocery stores? Okay. The next quarter is okay, now we have a few grocery stores. Let's expand that and saturate the New York market. Okay. The next quarter, how do we then look beyond to the Northeast, to other regions, Mid Atlantic, potentially Florida, where else from there, and then beyond to nationwide. But, you know, as we've talked about, we are working with a perishable, refrigerated product. And so we do really want to be measured in this growth because, you know, we don't just do three production runs a year.
28:09
Kiki
We have to do it on a weekly basis. And so we need to make sure that everything is airtight on our production and our operations as we continue to scale.
28:18
Caitlin Bricker
So cool. I think I've said that so many times already, but I'm just so impressed by what you're doing, and I think it's going to be very exciting for 2026, especially when you launch into retail. I think these people who have already been tasting your product, enjoying it, are going to be like, hell yeah, I can go. I can get it whenever I want as long as those doors are open. So I'm excited to see the shift for your brand. I'm excited to see what other people have to say about it. And for anybody who's listening and has not found you online yet, can you just drop your handles for us and tell us where we can find you?
28:51
Kiki
For sure. We are on all platforms at Get Sourmilk. And then if you want a little bit more behind the scenes of the founder journey, I'm also on all platforms at Couch Woman.
29:01
Caitlin Bricker
I have to laugh.
29:02
Kiki
Couch Woman has been my handle since sophomore year of high school and now I've just stuck with it.
29:08
Elan
And then we also have a bi weekly newsletter that we write that kind of shares more in depth into like the problems that we're thinking about, how we've kind of approached those things, including like a naming deep dive. We have a whole naming deep dive on there and then also a lot about Gut Health. So if you're curious to learn more about Gut Health, we share a lot there.
29:24
Caitlin Bricker
I love that. I can probably go to your source about Gut Health and not get this like monstrosity of just, I don't even know how to put it into words. Just like this ominous thing that is Gut Health. Like I can actually go to you and just get some no BS information and I really appreciate that.
29:42
Kiki
Does a really good job of paring it down to make sure it's the right information but incredibly digestible as well.
29:48
Caitlin Bricker
I hate to end on this note because this has just been so much fun talking to you both, but super excited for your product. Super excited for you. Thank you so much for making time out of your day to talk to us.
29:59
Elan
Thanks Halen.
30:00
Kiki
Appreciate it. Thank you.
30:01
Caitlin Bricker
See you later. All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, do us a solid and leave us a five star review on ratethispodcast.com startup cpg I'm Caitlyn Bricker, the host of the Founder Feature series and editor at Startup CPG. Feel free to find me on LinkedIn or reach out to me on Slack and get on my radar. I'm always keeping my eyes peeled for new and emerging brands to spotlight. If you're a potential sponsor who would like to appear on the podcast, please email partnershipsartupcpg.com and finally, as a reminder, for anyone listening. If you haven't already, we would love for you to join our free CPG community on Slack. You can sign up via our website@startup cpg.com see you around.